According to Foucault, if\nclassical culture was characterized by \u201can entire tradition in historical\nscience (theological or rationalistic) that seeks to dissolve individual events\nin the ideal continuity of the teleological movement or natural interconnection,\u201d\nthen genealogy (or, according to Foucault, \u201creal\u201d history) evaluates\npredecessors as those who \u201cwere wrong in describing linear genesis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The unambiguity of the\nformulations and the content of the \u201cgenealogy\u201d methodological guidelines\nsuggest that, within the framework of this approach, Foucault consistently\nabandons virtually all traditional presumptions of a linear vision of the\nhistorical process. Fundamental methodological genealogy specificity, which\ndistinguishes it from the classical methods of analysis of historical process\nperforms its principal non-linearity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First, genealogy based on\na radical rejection of the presumption of continuity. According to Foucault,\n\u201cthe forces acting in history … do not show themselves in successive forms of\ninitial intention, they do not matter the result.\u201d According to Foucault\u2019s\nprogrammatic formulation, \u201cgenealogy does not pretend to turn back time and\nestablish an enormous continuity, despite scattered forgotten; it does not set\nitself the task of showing that the past is still here, lives safely in the\npresent, animating it secretly, first giving all the hindrances to the path the\nshape destined from the very beginning. \u201d In this context, an event is defined\nas a phenomenon with a special status neither articulation as a cause, nor\narticulation, therefore, the status of the \u201ceffect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Secondly, \u201cgenealogy\u201d is\nfocused on clearly expressed antievolutionism. The latter is that, according to\nFoucault, the goal of the work of a genealogist, unlike the work of a historian\nin his traditional understanding, is by no means the reconstruction of the\nhistorical process as a kind of integrity, the evolution of which presupposes\nthe realization of some initial outline. The genealogical approach not only\nassumes but also does not allow \u201cnothing that would be like … the fate of the\npeople.\u201d The goal of genealogy is just the opposite, namely, \u201cto keep what\nhappened, in its inherent fragmentation … delusions, errors in assessment,\npoor calculation, which gave rise to what exists and is significant for us; to\ndiscover that in the root of what we know and of what we are, there is neither\ntruth, nor being, but only the exteriority of the case.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thirdly, one of the most\ncritical presumptions of \u201cgenealogy\u201d is the rejection of the idea of \u200b\u200ban\nexternal cause. It is precisely this refusal that Foucault sees as the main\ncriterion for distinguishing \u201cgenealogy\u201d from traditional disciplinary history:\nin his opinion, \u201cthe objectivity of history is … the necessary belief in\nProvidence, in final causes and teleology.\u201d Genealogy interprets subjectness in\na fundamentally different way: namely as an eventful creative environment that\nis in the process of intrinsic self-organization. Similarly, the \u201cstory with\nits intensities, inconsistencies, hidden fury, great feverish revivals, as with\nits syncopations, is the very body of becoming. You need to be a metaphysician\nto search for a soul in a distant ideal of origin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fourthly, in the\n\u201cgenealogy\u201d reference system, the phenomenon of chance acquires the status of a\nfundamental mechanism for the implementation of the actual process. Moreover,\nif the extended version of history created a special \u201cuniverse of rules,\ndesigned … to quench the thirst for violence\u201d a kind of interpretive\nself-will regarding spontaneous eventfulness, then \u201cgenealogy comes, finally,\nto an understanding: \u201ca grandiose game of history is to whom regulations.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the most critical\nmoment of the constitution of a semantically significant event, Foucault fixes\nthe phenomenon of the possibility of verification in the unfolding of events.\nAs Foucault writes, \u201cfrom the same sign, in which both the symptom of the\ndisease and the embryo of a delightful flower can be seen, they came out at the\nsame time, and only later they would be divided.\u201d \u201cExcessive strength\u201d\nmanifests itself in that it \u201callows it to separate\u201d by asking various versions\nof the branching process. According to Foucault, \u201cit also happens that strength\nfights against itself: … now of its weakening … reacts to its fatigue,\ndrawing from it, not ceasing to increase, its power, and turning against it …\nit sets limits for him (order as the principle of limiting possible degrees of\nfreedom), depicts him as the highest moral value and, thus, regains power.\u201d In\nthis context, Foucault gives an example from the history of the Reformation: \u201cin\nXII century, Catholicism was still strong enough to rebel against itself,\ntorture its own body and its history, and spiritualize into a pure religion of\nconscience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Foucault’s\nformulation, \u201cthe forces acting in history are not subject to the design, nor\nto the mechanism, but only the vicissitudes of the struggle … They always\nmanifest themselves in a unique chance event.\u201d Thus, a necessary alternative to\nlinear genetism is, in Foucault\u2019s opinion, \u201cindispensable for genealogist\nrestraint: snatch the singularity of events beyond any monotonous expediency,\ntrack them where they are least expected … not so much to draw a slow curve\nof their evolution, but to recover different the prices at which they played\nvarious roles; to determine even the point of their lacunae, the moment in\nwhich they did not take place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During overcoming the\nlogocentrism of traditional metaphysics, Foucault argues that chance should not\nbe understood as a break in the chain of necessary causes and effects that\nviolates the continuity of the triumphal unfolding of the logic of history. On\nthe contrary, the following random one after another of various deviations from\nthe norm constitutes those threads that serve as the basis of the event fabric\nof history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Foucault’s\nformulation, \u201cthe forces acting in history are not subject to the design, nor\nto the mechanism, but only the vicissitudes of the struggle … They always\nmanifest themselves in the unique randomness of the event.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We believe that our\npresent rests on sincere intentions, on invariable necessity; we demand from\nhistorians to convince us of this. However, the real historical feeling\nsuggests that we live without unique markings and original coordinates in the\nmyriad of lost events.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe genealogy of power,\u201d\naccording to Foucault, should be unlike the \u201chistory of historians\u201d supra-historical,\ntimeless, apocalyptic. Genealogy, in his opinion, is intended to be \u201cthe\nhistory of morality, ideals, metaphysical concepts, history of the concept of\nfreedom or ascetic life as foci of various interpretations\u201d to allow \u201cto reveal\nthem as events in the theater of judicial procedures\u201d Genealogy, in Foucault\u2019s\nview, opposes \u201cmetaphysical deployment ideal significations of teleological infinities.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Foucault argued, after\nNietzsche, only three ways of dealing with history are possible:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Extending the traditional global monumental\nhistory, practice parody, and farcical exaggeration, bringing everything\n\u201csacred\u201d to the carnival limit of the heroic – up to the greatest ones\nimaginable, events and people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Immediately become everything. The plural and\nintermittent I, incapable of synthesis and disinterested in finding roots, are\ncapable and empowered to empathically get used to all forms of existence of the\nchanging world of people and cultures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Reject the \u201cpassion for truth\u201d by refusing the\n\u201cwill-to-knowledge\u201d Honor the \u201cpractice of stupidity\u201d in the name of overcoming\nthe sacrifice of life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
According to Foucault, if classical culture was characterized by \u201can entire tradition in historical science (theological or rationalistic) that seeks to dissolve individual events in the ideal continuity of the … Continue readingFoucault\u2019s 1971 \u201cNietzsche, Genealogy, History\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eng296.digitalwcu.org\/WeeklyWriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eng296.digitalwcu.org\/WeeklyWriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eng296.digitalwcu.org\/WeeklyWriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eng296.digitalwcu.org\/WeeklyWriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eng296.digitalwcu.org\/WeeklyWriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/eng296.digitalwcu.org\/WeeklyWriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":336,"href":"https:\/\/eng296.digitalwcu.org\/WeeklyWriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327\/revisions\/336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eng296.digitalwcu.org\/WeeklyWriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eng296.digitalwcu.org\/WeeklyWriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eng296.digitalwcu.org\/WeeklyWriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}